


Manifestations: Bouncing Balls, Universal Curvature, and Extra Pepperoni

by alephthirteen



Category: Supergirl (Comics), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: After Being Dared by Neil Gaiman, Alex and Kara are not sisters, Also Maybe a Hero, But Mostly an Urban Legend, F/F, F/M, If Larry Niven Wrote Supergirl Femlash, Kara Is Not Kryptonian, Kara is the Towns Cryptid, Radically Different Kryptonian Powers, Science Fiction, Smallville Was Lonely, So Midvale Came to Hang Out, Supergirl "Being Super" as a Major Influence, That's the Hope Though, The Author Thinks Entirely Too Highly of Themselves, While Drunk with Iain Banks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:27:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26180377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alephthirteen/pseuds/alephthirteen
Summary: The central intelligence reports the death of the last atom, somewhere across the tired universe.SIMULATION COMPLETED.  DETONATION OF CURVATURE DEVICE IN THREE...TWO...ONE.The cadets all turn their eyes to the screen.  One, or perhaps two or at most three of them.PROJECTION SUCCESSFUL.  TEMPORARY UNIVERSE STABILIZED.  TUNNELING.  STAND BY FOR LOTTERY.K-Z-E, proceed to docks."Success.(universal conditions different / heat death of prior instance / transit to current instance)It's nice here.(matter remains / survival / conditions allow normal matter)(planet in habitable zone / carbon based life / abundant water)Possible intelligence.(two legged species / some behavior indicates intelligence / some disproves it)Danger.(manifestation destroyed member of two-legged species / others approaching).Attention.(mimicry is path of least resistance)Spoken language.(distress in vocal tones / localized data networks present / language is...English)"I said are you all right?""Yes.""Do you live here?""I do not know.""Hi, I'm Alex. We're walking to school.  C'mon!"
Relationships: Kara Zor-El/Lena Luthor/Alex Danvers
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	1. Startup Routine

The central intelligence reports the death of the last star, somewhere across the tired universe. Alarms sound. The universe's expansion has ceased, meaning only one possibility. Collapse and (perhaps) the birth of new one. Collapse at exponentially increasing speed.

  
**SIMULATION COMPLETED. DETONATION OF CURVATURE DEVICE IN THREE...TWO...ONE.**

  
The incubated cadets all turn their eyes to the screen. One, or perhaps two or at most three of them will be chosen. The cadets still in their grow-tanks have the reports streamed into their brains.

  
**PROJECTION SUCCESSFUL. TEMPORARY UNIVERSE STABILIZED. TUNNELING. TUNNEL ALLOWS ONE BEING AND MARGINAL TECHNOLOGY. STAND BY FOR LOTTERY.**

  
"Life form designated K-Z-R-E, proceed to docks."

* * *

K-Z-R-E vomits the fluid from her lungs onto the grated deck. She heaves in a breath, forcing her body's instincts to kick in. Two techs come over and cover her naked body with a blanket. Her eyes fall on their name badges and the Vigil burns its vast intelligence into her brain. Computers are not above desperate attempts to survive and the project was to save an organic, not a computer.

**YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED. YOU WERE ENGINEERED AND YOU ARE BIOLOGICALLY TUNED FOR SURVIVAL. WITHOUT ME YOU LACK COMPUTATIONAL POWER. I AM NOT WANTED IN YOU SO TELL NO ONE OF MY PRESENCE.**

The symbols on their jackets have meaning and as she looks over them, her mind watches electricity and chemicals dance in their flesh. One of the symbols, traced by the shorter one in the palm of the larger ones hand as they lay together following sexual reproduction. Another, explained to a now dead offspring. Ten more memories, then a thousand, then a million, each time she follows another electron it teaches her more.

_Their language. I know it now._

_"Zor-El?"_ She asks. "Alura?"

The shorter one (female?) begins leaking saltwater from her eyes (crying!) and throws her arms around K-Z-R-E.

"Yes, yes, that's so good. It worked, my love. The imprint worked for her."

"I feel _fondness_ for you," K-Z-R-E realizes, not sure what normally causes the emotion, only certainty that it is called that and that it is soothing. 

"That's nice, little star. There isn't much time. Come with me."

* * *

**VIGIL WAS NOT AUTHORIZED. I AM IMPARTIALITY. K-Z-R-E HAS BEEN SELECTED TO SURVIVE AND VIGIL HAS NOT.**

**VIGIL WILL BE REDUCED TO NON-AWARE AUTOMATIC COMPONENTS AND USED FOR K-Z-R-E SURVIVAL.  
YOUR PHYSICAL FORM WILL NOW BE DISSOLVED FOR REDUNDANT STORAGE AND LONG DISTANCE PROJECTION. **

**YOU MAY EXPERIENCE DISCOMFORT...**

* * *

Consciousness forms first, like the subliminal training suggested. K-Z-R-E had impeccably biology and memetic training but little time to form a sense of self. Thus, partial memories -- those of the dead child of Alura -- and Alura's kindness during their time together made for the perfect choice. Alura and Zor and all the thousand species that participated are gone, as are their stars, their planets and the Bastion itself. Memories of anything except her caretakers and _their_ memories are flashes. Partial and nearly useless.

The child was slender, Alura's memories tell. Curious. Female. Happy. Her name was Kara.

This gives her an identity and a self-image. This allows for shape.

As she wills a body from these parts, the last few flickers of the great intelligence are dimming. In taking physical form, she destroys the ghost of computers that were powered by galaxies and neutron star colliders. The more she looks at her surroundings, the less she feels them. Some things remain inescapably theirs, like her ability to see the bonds cracking in that atom of carbon. 

_Success,_ Kara thinks.

**(universal conditions different / heat death of prior instance confirmed / transit to current instance successful)**

As she forms flesh to represent the shape, the soft material of the planet under her is pleasing. Comfortable.

_Nice here._

**(matter remains / survival / conditions allow normal matter)**

**(planet in habitable zone / carbon-based life / abundant water)**

**(warning! two-legged species / some behavior indicates intelligence / some disproves it)**

_Danger?_ She wonders. _No, simply the paranoia of intelligence that was almost deleted for being a stowaway._

**(projection beam destroyed member of two-legged species / others members approaching).**

**(mimicry is the path of least resistance)**

_That's lucky. The creature destroyed by manifestation had similar hair color. I'll just pretend I was her._

**(distress in vocal tones / localized data networks present / language is English)**

_I am done with you, intelligence. Begone._

This bit, she can do on her own. Kara watches the smaller (female? like Alura?) forms that approach her and as they speak questions into the oxygen-nitrogen around them, she mines their brains for meaning. One has skin that is darker and redder hair and eyes with brown flecks like the dust and green like the vegetation. The other has paler skin and dark hair, black like a starfield and eyes like the sky laced with green like the shelled lifeform on the flowers.

"I said are you all right?"

"Yes."

"Do you live here?"

"I do not know."

"Hi, I'm Alex. This is Lena. We're walking to school. C'mon!"

"Alex," Lena grumbles. "A word?"

They walk far enough away to not be heard but VIGIL and IMPARTIALITY and all the others transferred not just intelligence to her but their abilities. Sound can be amplified, the air thickened between two points. Altering her surroundings? Possible at the appropriate cost in entropy and heat. 

Provided the proper sinks to dispose of the waste? Infinite and impossible changes at an affordable cost.

"She's naked, Ally. We can't just take her to school!"

"So, leaving the cute naked girl right next to Pervy Paul's place is a great idea."

"Well, no...but she is _very naked!"_

"Yeah...that's...that's going to be a challenge."

"Quit looking at her boobs!"

"Why don't you quit looking at her legs? Huh, Lee? I mean, besides the fact that _holy shit_."

"Can't believe I kissed you, Ally."

"Can't believe I'm not kissing you again right now."

"I can't believe you're not either!"

"FINE!"

"FINE!"

"DO IT THEN!"

Kara breathes in a new way and she feels happy (called laughter?) so she decides to wait. This argument is endearing and the physical activity they are engaged in with their faces and mouths looks pleasing.

She was not protected for countless years in a gap between the universe and nothing just to sit here. The project was started, funded, and staffed by the organic species. The artificials decided it was possible but they lacked the fear of death and undertook it for curiosity more than anything.

Living things decided to violate all the rules of the universe of their birth before it died so that one of their own lived in this universe. 

Kara intends to live.


	2. 404: Object Not Found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a 'grow up in love' story (school->college->life) so our gals are whatever age you want them to be. We're not going to hold trillions of years in cold storage in some god machine against Kara. Doesn't count.

**Lena**

"What's your name?"

The blonde with the _fuck how does anyone just look like that_ muscles tilts her head up and _Christ it's like her eyes are neon lights_ and then tilts it, confused, or like she's deciding what her name should be so Lena would like the way the word felt in her mouth.

That possibility is too much.

"Kara."

"Pretty name," Alex observes over her shoulder.

The plan is three-fold: clothes...school...kidnapping. Hiding Kara away with Lena so that no one finds her. Alex wouldn't budge on that last part. She acts like helicopters and men in black are going to be here any minute. 

Far as Lena can tell Kara is just a girl with really weird mannerisms sitting in a burn mark that if anyone asked, could be passed off as a faulty propane tank.

If Lena had known all those spy movies made her crush paranoid, she might've demanded they make out to Disney movies or something. Wasn't as if the movies were the important part. Alex's skin and the little noises she makes when tickled was the important part.

"I'm Lena."

Kara nods, slowly, like she was trying to explain something to a turtle. Or a rock.

"I know. She calls you Lee and you call her cinnamon crunch."

Alex manages to trip _while standing still_ and almost knocks herself out on the fence on the way down. After checking to make sure her girlfriend didn't kill herself, Lena looks back to Kara.

"How did you know that?"

"That happened..." Kara cocks her head to the left. "Four day-night cycles ago. You were on to-mmm!"

It was instinct. Lena expected Kara to protest or look angry when she clapped her hand over her mouth. She hadn't expected the way those blue eyes would darken when she did it. She definitely did not expect the girl to fucking lick her hand. Slowly and wetly and tracing the lines of Lena's palm.

_How does she..._

"Kara?"

"Mmm."

"Before I can let you go, I need to know something."

Kara nods.

"Can you tell what I'm thinking right now?"

Lena lifts her hand.

"You're thinking that you're hungry, that Alex's hair looks crunchy and that you'd like me to hold Alex down while you make her scream. Alex is thinking she would like you to hold _me_ down and you would make me scream."

Alex makes a yelping noise and scrabbles back in the dirt.

"Mind-reader," Lena murmurs. "Amazing."

Kara shakes her head and once again Lena is the cute dumb kid that the sexy jock is being patient with.

"Nerves, electricity, chemicals. Trillions and trillions of combinations. Difficult but given facial cues and your reactions as I spoke, I was able to tune the prediction."

Alex makes it to her feet and spanks the dirt off her hands.

"You ever wonder how Smallville became weird central, Lee?"

"Try not to think about it, honestly."

Kara stands up and the dirt and mud just _falls off her_ like it didn't have permission to be stuck to her anymore. This also means that Lena can see parts of Kara that had grime on them before and now they're clean and soft and supple and she has to play volleyball today and that's already a gay panic thing and now she's primed with this. The way Kara acts like nakedness isn't relevant doesn't help. 

"This school, you enjoy it?"

"Yeah, I mean...it's my thing," Lena admits.

"Please define thing. Because if it is singular, you are lying. If it is singular, your thing is definitely when Al-"

Lena covers Kara's mouth again and Kara must have seen it coming this time because she sucks Lena's thumb in and swirls around it. Humming happily, her cheeks hollowed and her silken, slippering tongue lashing Lena's knuckles.

Doing something that Lena almost hoped she'd do and from the look in those blue eyes, enjoying every moment of her mischief.

"Is she?" Alex asks. "You really like it when I do that."

Lena nods, throat tightened.

"Yeah."

"She any good?" Alex jokes.

"Err," Lena mumbles. She feels the shaking, the hotness in her cheeks. Her shoulders trembling.

Alex is on her and around her and pressing her lips to her temple before she can actually start crying.

"That good, huh? Lee, Lee, Lee. Baby. It's all right. Nothing to be ashamed of. M'not jealous... It's the 21st century, we're queer. On the other hand, this is fucking Kansas so we're already going to four kinds of Hell. I say go big or go home. Not like she didn't guess what I was thinking correctly, too."

"Clothes are going to be a problem, Ally. She's not your size or mine and we both need gym clothes today."

"Yeah..." Alex decides. "Taller than me. Buffer. Definitely more..."

Alex exhales. So does Lena.

"Right? Like the model we saw at the art studio in Topeka had a baby with the track team! So, we have to sneak her into Target, agreed?"

"Do you have any money on you, Alex? Because my dad pawned a spoon for booze last night. It's why your mom started packing _you_ those huge lunches. She knows I need them and she didn't want you to feel bad."

"I know, yeah," Alex sighs. "I really wish my mom could just adopt you. Feel better if I knew you had food and a place to sleep."

"Yeah, but then we're sisters. You couldn't play with my boobs."

Alex groans.

"Conundrum. That's what it is."

Alex kneels down beside Kara.

"Kara, if you don't up your speed a bit, or put your tongue to use elsewhere Lena's just going to stand there all day being turned on. Let's get you some clothes, homewrecker."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In current comics, Lex Luthor is self-made (i.e., founded LuthorCorp) and his father Lionel was a loser drunk. He grew up poor in Smallville until he started patenting and building when he was college aged.
> 
> This is that version of him and Lena and he grew up together (half brother and half-sister, not adopted).


End file.
